Departures, injuries and suspensions have whittled the Dallas Cowboys’ defense from questionable to doubtful to potentially horrific. This should not affect your hopes — or distaste — for defensive lineman Josh Brent’s return.

Brent, guilty of intoxication manslaughter for killing a teammate, met last week with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to argue for reinstatement. Owner Jerry Jones says Brent “has contrition,” which we offer with 10,000 grains of salt. Jones also says he expects to learn Brent’s football availability “in due time” and pledges a roster spot. Given the state of Jones’ defense, he ought to be advertising on Craigslist, but we digress.

What’s wrong with this picture? Only this: Goodell, with full power over miscreant employees, shouldn’t even have Brent on his calendar. Except for a stunning decision by a Dallas County jury, Brent would be in prison.

Brent retired from the Cowboys and the NFL last year, before his criminal case went to trial. Much has happened since. That Dallas County jury accepted that Brent drove his white Mercedes about 110 mph one night in Irving in December 2012 and flipped it, crushing his passenger, best friend and teammate Jerry Brown Jr. Tests showed Brent’s blood alcohol level at 0.18, more than twice the legal limit.

Inexplicably, the same jury that acknowledged these facts also decided that probation, not prison time, was Brent’s ticket. Instead of 180 days in jail and 10 years’ probation, Brent could have faced 20 years, which didn’t seem out of the question, given his history.

This wasn’t his first drunken driving incident. Four years ago, he lost his Illinois driver’s license after such an arrest. While awaiting trial for the Irving wreck, he violated the terms of his release as many as four times and failed two tests for marijuana. His Illinois case required him to have an ignition interlock device, which he avoided by not carrying a valid Texas license or insurance.

One would hope Goodell would see the potential harm to his product by allowing any team, even the checkered-past Cowboys, to re-employ such a threat to himself and others. Consistency has been a problem for America’s most popular sports league.

A Cleveland Browns receiver, Josh Gordon, could face a yearlong suspension for repeated marijuana positives. Brent’s once and future teammate, cornerback Orlando Scandrick, will miss this season’s first four games for a single positive for ecstasy. Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice is out only two games for a videotaped incident involving his unconscious fiancée and a hotel elevator.

And if you believe that Brent has paid his debt, remember that Rice wasn’t even prosecuted.

Does Brent deserve a second or even third chance? As a compassionate society, we say yes. But that doesn’t include the entitlement of an NFL salary, not the way he has endangered others. Goodell would be wise to make that point, too.

Dec. 18: Brent’s bail is cut to $100,000, with the conditions that he not use alcohol or marijuana and not drive until he obtains a valid license. (Brent’s Illinois license had been suspended in 2009 after a drunken-driving arrest.)

May 23, 2013: Prosecutors want Brent jailed, citing a monitor detecting at least four exposures to alcohol, as well as “possible tampering with the device.”

June 27: State District Judge Robert Burns orders Brent jailed after he fails a urine test for marijuana.

July 8: Brent is released from jail, with new conditions, including a ban on driving and a required drug detection patch.

July 18: Brent retires from the NFL.

Jan. 24, 2014: A Dallas County jury finds Brent guilty of intoxication manslaughter in Brown’s death and sentences him to probation. Burns specifies that as 180 days in jail and 10 years’ probation.

July 23: Cowboys owner Jerry Jones says he’s open to Brent’s return to the roster, if the NFL reinstates him.